Weather Service to start monitoring the French Broad in Fletcher

Gauge will alert officials to flooding conditions

Published: Tuesday, July 2, 2013 at 4:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Monday, July 1, 2013 at 4:17 p.m.

The National Weather Service will soon provide a new service to alert the community when the French Broad River reaches flood stage.

The NWS will start using a river gauge on Old Fanning Bridge Road over the French Broad River in Fletcher on July 16, said Patricia Tanner, hydrologist at the National Weather Service in Greer, S.C.

The gauge has been in place for seven years but has been inactive.

“We felt the need to provide that service to the community,” Tanner said.

The Fletcher gauge will provide the public and emergency management officials in Buncombe and Henderson counties with advance warning of impending floods.

Flood stage for the French Broad River in Fletcher is 13 feet.

“A graphic and text display shows how long it will take the river to reach a flood stage, how high the river will rise and how long the flood will last whenever a forecast is issued,” Tanner said.

The instrument will help local emergency management when they monitor river levels, added Rocky Hyder, county director of Emergency Serivces.

“The advantage for us is that we will get a very specific flood forecast for Henderson County,” he added.

There is second gauge at Blantyre — with a flood stage of 16 feet — at the other end of the river in Henderson County.

“We will have good information to interpret what happens in between those points,” Hyder said.

The gauge sites are owned, operated and maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey in Asheville.

Flood warnings are announced in the Times-News and other local emdia, over the NOAA Weather Radio, through county emergency officials and at www.weather.gov/gsp.

Those warnings may be disseminated this week as a weather system threatens the region with widespread heavy rainfall.

Flooding is the biggest concern, said Jeffery Taylor, NWS meteorologist.

“The conditions are certainly good for flooding,” Taylor said, adding that he expects about 3 inches of rainfall this week.

“The ground is fairly saturated and moist,” he said.

The Weather Service recorded 8.8 inches of rain at the Asheville Regional Airport last month, which is almost double the average of 4.65 inches for June, he said.

Weather conditions do not look favorable for a fireworks show on the Fourth of July. Taylor expects about a half-inch of rain to start falling in the area by early evening. The cause of the forecasted deluge is a low-pressure system over the region sandwiched by high-pressure systems in the east and west.

The threat of flooding is an ongoing in the state, and teams from the NOAA Hydrometeorology Testbed and NASA launched a pilot program late last month “to improve understanding and forecasting of dangerous storms in the region that can lead to flooding and economic losses,” according to the NOAA website.

Researchers with the HMT-Southeast Pilot Study will place NOAA instruments throughout the state that could improve forecasting weather events such as tropical storms and summertime thunderstorms. The reason for the pilot is because the southeast United States is prone to having extreme precipitation throughout the year, making forecasting in the region challenging, according to NOAA.

Instruments from NOAA in Morganton, Marion, Old Fort, New Bern, Charlotte and Raleigh, in collaboration with a NASA study occurring in the same vicinity, will be used for the pilot.

Western North Carolina has extreme variants in annual precipitation, said Kelly Mahoney, research scientist for the University of Colorodo, Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences and NOAA.

“This regional variability also poses a big forecast challenge, and offers much of interest to researchers who would like to better understand how the mountains interact with such a variety of weather systems,” Mahoney said.

NASA's interest in Western North Carolina is to verify its satellite-based precipitation tools because of the wide range of precipitation in the area, she said.

“The potential for NASA and NOAA to partner and focus on this region of mutual interest allows us to make greater gains in all that we hope to study,” Mahoney said.

<p>The National Weather Service will soon provide a new service to alert the community when the French Broad River reaches flood stage. </p><p>The NWS will start using a river gauge on Old Fanning Bridge Road over the French Broad River in Fletcher on July 16, said Patricia Tanner, hydrologist at the National Weather Service in Greer, S.C.</p><p>The gauge has been in place for seven years but has been inactive. </p><p>“We felt the need to provide that service to the community,” Tanner said.</p><p>The Fletcher gauge will provide the public and emergency management officials in Buncombe and Henderson counties with advance warning of impending floods.</p><p>Flood stage for the French Broad River in Fletcher is 13 feet. </p><p>“A graphic and text display shows how long it will take the river to reach a flood stage, how high the river will rise and how long the flood will last whenever a forecast is issued,” Tanner said.</p><p>The instrument will help local emergency management when they monitor river levels, added Rocky Hyder, county director of Emergency Serivces. </p><p>“The advantage for us is that we will get a very specific flood forecast for Henderson County,” he added. </p><p>There is second gauge at Blantyre — with a flood stage of 16 feet — at the other end of the river in Henderson County.</p><p>“We will have good information to interpret what happens in between those points,” Hyder said.</p><p>The gauge sites are owned, operated and maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey in Asheville.</p><p>Flood warnings are announced in the Times-News and other local emdia, over the NOAA Weather Radio, through county emergency officials and at www.weather.gov/gsp.</p><p>Those warnings may be disseminated this week as a weather system threatens the region with widespread heavy rainfall.</p><p>Flooding is the biggest concern, said Jeffery Taylor, NWS meteorologist.</p><p>“The conditions are certainly good for flooding,” Taylor said, adding that he expects about 3 inches of rainfall this week. </p><p>“The ground is fairly saturated and moist,” he said. </p><p>The Weather Service recorded 8.8 inches of rain at the Asheville Regional Airport last month, which is almost double the average of 4.65 inches for June, he said.</p><p>Weather conditions do not look favorable for a fireworks show on the Fourth of July. Taylor expects about a half-inch of rain to start falling in the area by early evening. The cause of the forecasted deluge is a low-pressure system over the region sandwiched by high-pressure systems in the east and west.</p><p>The threat of flooding is an ongoing in the state, and teams from the NOAA Hydrometeorology Testbed and NASA launched a pilot program late last month “to improve understanding and forecasting of dangerous storms in the region that can lead to flooding and economic losses,” according to the NOAA website.</p><p>Researchers with the HMT-Southeast Pilot Study will place NOAA instruments throughout the state that could improve forecasting weather events such as tropical storms and summertime thunderstorms. The reason for the pilot is because the southeast United States is prone to having extreme precipitation throughout the year, making forecasting in the region challenging, according to NOAA.</p><p>Instruments from NOAA in Morganton, Marion, Old Fort, New Bern, Charlotte and Raleigh, in collaboration with a NASA study occurring in the same vicinity, will be used for the pilot.</p><p>Western North Carolina has extreme variants in annual precipitation, said Kelly Mahoney, research scientist for the University of Colorodo, Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences and NOAA.</p><p>“This regional variability also poses a big forecast challenge, and offers much of interest to researchers who would like to better understand how the mountains interact with such a variety of weather systems,” Mahoney said.</p><p>NASA's interest in Western North Carolina is to verify its satellite-based precipitation tools because of the wide range of precipitation in the area, she said.</p><p>“The potential for NASA and NOAA to partner and focus on this region of mutual interest allows us to make greater gains in all that we hope to study,” Mahoney said.</p><p>Data will be collected through this October 2014.</p><p>Reach Schulman at 828-694-7890 or mark.schulman@blueridgenow.com.</p>